Load Management Is Killing Summer Basketball
The regular season is turning into a highlight reel with asterisks. Fans are done paying premium prices for B-squad nights.
You bought the ticket. You cleared the night. Then half the marquee names are listed as "rest" before tip-off.
That is not strategy anymore. That is a broken incentive structure wearing a lab coat.
The take
If a star sits for load management on a nationally televised game, the team should lose a chunk of that night's gate and media allocation. Make resting expensive. Suddenly availability becomes part of the product again.
The NBA sells stars. When stars vanish on purpose, the league is selling a counterfeit version of itself.
No filter
I get longevity. I get the calendar. What I do not get is pretending fans should shrug while the regular season becomes an unpaid exhibition for April.
Play or pay. Summer basketball deserves better than asterisks.